Antuco | THEATER DER WELT

In the organizer's words:

A military disaster inspires sensitive puppet theater: a play about youth, dependence, obedience, institutional responsibility and hope.

Winter 2005 in the Chilean Andes. A military exercise, poorly prepared, poorly equipped. During a march on the Antuco volcano, 44 young recruits and a non-commissioned officer die of cold and exhaustion. What remains are emptiness, anger and a lack of understanding throughout the country.
The group Silencio Blanco from Santiago de Chile deliberately chose this deeply resonant tragedy for their play. The focus is not on the shocking maneuver, but on what comes afterwards: the waiting, the staying behind, the everyday life of the families. Appropriate to the situation, the artists create a concentrated puppet theater without a single word. The militarization of young people and the link between their livelihoods and the army as an institution are dealt with using sharp, scenic imagery.
A play full of gestures unfolds around the seduction of children's fantasies of heroism and adventure, which then come to a sobering end in the military apparatus. In Chile, military service is still one of the few opportunities for social advancement for many young people from rural regions. At the same time, the military remains an institution whose role is controversial, caught between national self-image, discipline and repressed responsibility.
Using simple materials and a reduced black and white aesthetic, haunting scenes are created in which wind, snow and bodies tell stories in equal measure. Nature is not a backdrop, but becomes a powerful force that no one can escape. The weather becomes the action, the landscape the witness. There is nothing heroic here. Silencio Blanco, which translates as "a very eerie, deep silence", precisely and poetically focuses on responsibility, memory and loss.

Venue: Spinnbau - Puppet Theater
Introduction: 30 minutes before the start of each performance
Duration: 55 min
Information: Without spoken word

All further information at: https://www.theaterderwelt.de/programm/

A festival of the German Centre of the International Theatre Institute e.V.
Organized by Chemnitz Theatres, the Festival Academy Brussels and the European Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025 GmbH.

Price information:

Tickets at: theaterderwelt.de/antuco | 35% discount with festival pass. More information at: theaterderwelt.de/service/tickets